The Art of Apology

Apologizing is a loaded act, these days. Apologizing at the scene of a car accident can let you in for some fun liability issues. Corporate apologies (for getting caught cooking the books, for issuing a faulty product, for causing a gas leak that wipes out an entire village) are also invitations for the legal dogs to descend, and generally issued only at gunpoint. Apologizing for a medical error? Hel-lo, malpractice suit.

However, I have always been cultivating the art of apology with T.K. Putting it bluntly, if he keeps being the impulsive imp he is, he's going to need to do a lot of it, and do it well. So we work on it.

The crime under consideration recently was an incident in math class. He and a girl were playing a math game that involved rolling dice. Both wanted to be the custodian of the dice, in between turns. She got hold of them and wouldn't give them back, he got upset and bit her on the hand. Which is certainly not okay (and yet another thing he doesn't do at home or outside of school, go figure).

So we talked about how to demonstrate his penitence, and settled on a card of apology. When asked what this girl liked best, T.K. was prompt -- "she likes Disney Princesses". So we went to the Disney website, and sonovagun, they have printable greeting cards. Did you know that? I didn't. He chose the border, chose the princess she likes best (Sleeping Beauty) printed it out and laboriously signed it. He also had to write the message inside because of all the canned greeting messages available, "Sorry I bit you in math class," is not one of them. You'd think that Disney would be all over a productization opportunity like this, but apparently not.

The next day he presented it to her with great pride and excitement; she was thrilled with it and kept it in her desk until the teacher made her take it home.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying, "Ya gotta take us everywhere twice -- the second time to apologize!"